That's what prospective new patients looking for a first appointment with a family physician are hearing in Hampden and Hampshire counties, according to an annual survey from the Massachusetts Medical Society. The average wait time for a new patient appointment with a family physician in Hampden County is 58 days, up from 48 in the 2012 survey, according to a study released Monday.

In a news release, Massachsuetts Medical Society President Ronald Dunlap said people who can't see a doctor either delay care, and get sicker, or go to emergency rooms, clogging them and costing more money. The survey of 1,137 physicians is the ninth annual study of physician access completed by the society.

In neighboring Hampshire County, the wait for a first appointment with a family physician is 56 days, down from 96 days a year ago. In Franklin County, the wait time fell by nearly half from 205 days to 106, but is still longer than three months and the longest wait time in the state.

By comparison, the statewide average is 39 days. Suffolk County, which includes Boston and its suburbs, has the shortest wait time at 16 days.

“I think it accurately reflects what patients are facing when they pick up the phone to get a primary care doctor,” said Dr. Gordon W. Josephson, interim president of Baystate Medical Practices, a multi-specialty group that is part of Baystate Health in Springfield. “We have something of a primary care shortage. I know it is frustrating, particularly for someone new to a community to pickup the phone and be told no. It takes some persistence, maybe a tip from a friend or neighbor, in some cases in order to get a primary. This is a problem.”

Dr. Katherine J. Atkinson has a family practice in Amherst. “We know that when blood pressure is not well controlled, diabetes is not well controlled; when heart disease is caught late there are much higher complication rates and ultimately it costs the system more,” she said.

For example, unchecked diabetes can lead to kidney trouble.

“Do you have any idea how much one dialysis patient costs our commonwealth?” Atkinson said.

The numbers aren't much better for other medical specialties considered primary care. In Hampden County, expect to wait 48 days for an internist, 20 for a pediatrician. Only 46 percent of family doctors and 23 percent of internists reported accepting new patients.

In Hampshire County, expect to wait 23 days for a pediatrician and 56 days for an internist. Only half the family docs and 30 percent of internists are accepting new patients. In Franklin County, the wait is 34 days for an internist and 29 days for a pediatrician. Only half the family doctors and just 17 percent of the internal medicine specialists are accepting new patients.

Statewide, more than half of primary care doctors remain closed to new patients.

Josephson said the problem is that fewer and fewer young doctors come out of medical school seeking a career in one of the primary-care specialties. The lure of big money from fancy specialties, the oft-cited culprit, is only one factor. Josephson said today’s young doctors don’t feel that being a family practitioner is dynamic and exciting enough of a medical career.

“Adult primary care is simply not high up on the list for them,” he said. “As a result, fewer people go into these fields and, as older doctors retire, the math becomes obvious. It’s like a restaurant, you can only serve so many meals a night and then you stop taking reservations.”

One solution, Josephson said, is to make primary care doctors the quarterback of a team working on the health of an individual, with counselors, usual highly trained nurses, helping with diet and exercise advice and nurse practitioners and physician assistants providing regular check-ups after the doctor sets a course of treatment.

“That might be more appealing to younger doctors,” he said.

It would never be done with new patients, but doctors are experimenting with e-visits, telephone conferences or email exchanges for routine business. It would free-up office time for new patients.

But Josephson said a lack of primary care doctors will still hurt low-income patients because they use forms of government insurance that don’t pay doctors well.

Atkinson said she might as well hand every MassHealth patient she sees a $50 bill after every visit. That’s how much she loses once her costs are accounted for. But you don’t want to stop treating those people, she said.

In Hampshire County, where she practices, all the family doctors take Medicare and 90 percent take MassHealth. In Hampden County, 100 percent take Medicare and 82 percent take MassHealth. In Franklin county, all the family practitioners surveyed accept both.

The statewide averages are 90 percent acceptance of Medicare and 70 percent of MassHealth.